The great way is gateless, reached by a thousand paths. Know this and you walk free in the Universe. – Zen saying

Astro Flash: Neptune on the Sun/Uranus midpoint is a sudden, mystical opening of the inner sight, the third eye. Clouds are blown away and you see the world from a new perspective. Stay with it! Even an extra few seconds is enough to change your mind. Change your life.

Take a moment today to ask questions about the larger, meta story arc, of your life. Where are you really headed? What do you really want? In meditation, or a quite time alone, a walk in nature, listening to music, dancing, swimming, musing, you might look through your Third Eye. What is that? Casey Kochmer explains it well here:

The Third Eye is a very clever bit of natural evolution: a meta organ designed to sense, connect to patterns and then relay that data back in overlays of information on top of your other senses . . . – Personal Tao

In my new series, w/t Amassia, there is a culture that is built on the notion that we are all on the ‘path,’ whether it looks like it or not! Enlightenment is the goal, particularly for the ‘savants’, those trained in the sanctuaries to raise their phantoms who . . . well, I won’t give away more just yet but certainly my mind has been on enlightenment lately, my characters’ as well as my own!

What path are you one these days? I love that of all the thousands there are, each is headed in the same direction.

Today’s Astro Flash: Venus square Juno is a day for appreciating the intricate beauty in life, especially your one-to-ones. There may be a bit of push and pull, contrast and challenge but underneath there is connection. Honour that! There’s something magnificent in every bond we form, no matter what the shape. Revel, relish, repair.

Juno differs from the other asteroid goddesses in her unwavering desire for marriage: Ceres prefers the company of the earth, her daughter and the occasional lover. A staunch virgin, Pallas Athena seeks the company of men as comrades in arms. Although offered the hand of marriage by Poseidon and Apollo, Vesta prefers to stay sequestered in her temple, content with managing the sacred flame of renewal. She welcomes men only as a consecrated act of divine union.

Yet Juno (Hera to the Greek) wanted Jupiter (Zeus), king of the pantheon of Mt. Olympus, to be her lawfully wedded husband. Originally a virgin sky deity in her own right, Juno’s marriage to Jupiter is thought to represents a merging of two cults that were once conflicting. How ever it came about, the marriage of Jupiter and Juno was a rocky one: Juno was faithful to her marriage vows; Jupiter was not. In spite of their troubles, Jupiter still longed for his wife and they had at least three children together, an indication that something creative came from the union.

In the story of Echo and Narcissus, the inability to form relationship outside of oneself is portrayed. Echo loved the beautiful young Narcissus, but he loved only himself. When Juno is tracking down Jupiter and his latest love interest, Echo’s chatter distracts the queen of the gods and Jupiter gets away. Furious, Juno curses Echo so that the nymph can never speak again but only repeat what she hears others say. This makes for some communication barriers in her own love life, ie, Narcissus.

But it wouldn’t have mattered. Narcissus spends his days staring at his own reflection, thinking it is a wondrous water nymph, the only creature on earth worthy of his love. This story, in full here, represents aspects of loving another, the first being the ability to love oneself. Eventually Echo is merged with the mountains and Narcissus becomes a beautiful flower, not quite the relationship evolution they were after but it’s a start. Like us, they are on the path!

Thoughts anyone? Can you see how all relationships, no matter how ‘disastrous’ or ‘one sided’ are steps in the direction of consciousness, of love?